The food safety songs that Megan wrote about crack me up.

And they’ve been found effective at getting high school students to remember safe food handling messages, so they must be cool.

However, facts should not be sacrificed for the sake of coolness (since doing so simply leads to food porn).

The USDA FSIS has determined that, "A ground beef patty cooked to 160 °F is safe."  But UC-Davis’ "Stayin’ Alive" suggests burgers should be up to one-eighty-five to avoid hepatitis and gastroenteritis.

I suppose listeners could overcook their burger to be extra-safe and extra-dry, if they wanted to. But my personal favorite food safety song, a parody of Kenny Rogers’ "The Gambler" entitled "Don’t Be a Gambler," suggests the centers reach the USDA-endorsed 160.

Messages must be consistent to ensure clarity.

Both parodies were used in the evaluation conducted with high school students, but student’s knowledge of safe end-point temperatures for ground beef was not tested.

I’d bet the tools aren’t effective at relaying that particular message. Any takers?